Kolkata, In spite of its tremendous potential, India's information technology (IT) industry has been suffering due to several issues which the government needs to focus on, a top official of software giant Microsoft Corporation said Thursday. "The country has some major issues and challenges. I am hoping that thegovernment will start focusing on some of the issues very seriously. There are lot of issues regarding taxation and policy. I think the latest Finance Act is trying to rectify some of those. Let's see what happens," said Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik. "The industry wants a stable and predictable policy and regime. We want less ambiguity, clear guidelines, clear policies and an environment where everybody can do business successfully and legally," he said. Pramanik on the occasion launched "To the Cloud", a book written by fellow employees Raj Biyani, Salil Dave and Pankaj Arora on cloud computing, the latest phenomena on the use of internet. The chairman retracted from his earlier view that India was no longer a preferred destination for MNCs, saying the country continued to be huge market. "As long as we remain competitive, investment will ...
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New Delhi, Parliament today passed by a voice vote the Damodar Valley Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2011, which provides for changing the structure of the Corporation. Rajya Sabha members, while supporting the Bill earlier passed by the Lok Sabha, demanded that the DVC be made financially viable to meet the requirements of Jharkhand and West Bengal. The Bill which seeks to amend the Damodar Valley Corporation Act of 1948, provides for a chairman, a member (technical) and a member (finance), a Central Government represenative and two representatives of the Jharkhand and West Bengal Governments each among others in the reconstituted Board. Replying to the discussion, Minister of state for Power K C Venugopal allayed apprehensions of members that written consent would be sought from the two state governments regarding the composition of Board and their views taken. He admitted that the purpose of the DVC had not materialised so far as power generation, flood control was concerned and some deviation had taken plce. A study had been commissioned by WAPCOS and the 2000-page report given to the two state governments. Based on it, a meeting had been sought but could not be ...
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New Delhi, The Rajya Sabha today passed by a voice vote the Prasar Bharti (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2010, benefitting around 40,000 government officers and employees working under deputation with facilities at par with Central government employees. The Bill, passed by a voice vote, will enable the employees on deputation to enjoy perks which are given to Central Government employees thereby fulfiling the long-standing demand of these employees. Replying to the discussion on the working of the national broadcaster in the Upper House, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni informed the members that the Government had allocated Rs 110 crore for fortifying telecast in the border areas especially with Pakistan. "Our Doordarshan Kashmir in new avatar is now being watched more than ever before in the POK area," she said. The Prime Minister had sanctioned Rs 264 crore for the channel so that all dialects were given a platform, the Minister said, adding that this was part of the efforts of the national broadcaster to put in place 150 channels free-to-air TV channels on Doordarshan. Earlier, her deputy Jatuwa said the ...
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Chandigarh, January 12 (Doaba News Service)- Punjab is lagging way behind other states in terms of providing medical insurance cover to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Besides the coverage of families being minimal, almost half of some of the other states, even the hospitals that have been empanelled for treatment do not have adequate facilities to accept the smart cards given to the families covered under the National Health Insurance Plan. Anil Swarup, Director-General Labour Welfare, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, has said that in Punjab only 35 per cent people from the eligible categories have been covered till date under the scheme that was started by the GoI on April 1, 2008. The insurance company that has been entrusted with the task of covering the families under the scheme is finding it hard to do so on account of incomplete data available with it. Sources sad the Punjab Health Systems Corporation, the nodal agency in this case, has supplied lists of BPL families based on a survey conducted in 2002. As a result, the insurance company has not been able to locate all people mentioned in the lists. Without giving out any reason, Swarup said ...
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